world lit in fire

AO3 - fanfic, obvs. Generally:

LOTR (Boromir lives; also Grima is around getting something like a “be marginally better please” arc),

Discworld (we love one (1) queer Lord Downey and that scag Dog-Botherer),

Star Wars (Krennic and Tarkin, divorced parents fighting over the custody of their child the Death Star Defense Sphere)

Some historical fiction (Marsilio Ficino and also the infamous crack Napoleon/Wellington nonsense)

Woodford Series - for those looking for the OG Napoleon/Wellington Murder Fairy series

Personal Website for Real Writing Things (I’m a poet and short story writer (there’s gotta be a better term for that), and working on a novel or two)

Writing Tag (it’s the wild west in there) 

Like the absolute nonsense I am as a person? I’ve got a ko-fi like a cool kid

If I think of anything else to add, I will update accordingly. 

they have a lot of interesting overlaps in certain respects - which makes sense given they're only a few months apart in age and grew up around the same literary and intellectual movements of the time.

I also like that they were both practical jokers with a bit of a boyish and impish sense of humour that would come out from time to time. Absolute menaces, when they wanted to be. Both were womanizers in their own right. Indeed, they famously slept with a few of the same women (Arthur going around sleeping with a few of Napoleon's mistresses after he took France is certainly something!)

Napoleon would definitely be on Arthur to "do something" with his (possible) May 1 birth date because it's nice and auspicious.

Napoleon: Born on the side of the road in the midst of a thunderstorm on May day! Phenomenal. I wish I had that birth. Being born on the Feast of the Assumption on the living room rug after my mother powered through the remainder of mass after her water broke has less of a ring to it.

Arthur: But I wasn't born on the side of the road! That's literally not what happened.

Napoleon: Too late, I've decided it's true.

Arthur: W h y??

Napoleon: The essence of myth & legend baybyyyyyyy

Arthur: ... .. .,,, ..... god you're a piece of work

Napoleon, preening: Thank you.

I also do love their contrasting natures as well - where they become natural foils for each other.

Napoleon's imagination and flair for the dramatic around mythologizing himself and his life in comparison to Arthur's more sober (well...) approach to things.

Arthur being a man who likes to pound of a bottle of wine with dinner while Napoleon would have wine watered down and only a glass or two at most.

Napoleon having this phenomenal personal charm and charisma that was quite powerful while Arthur was as charming as a fish.

Both being brilliant generals but in very different directions and with different approaches (naturally reflecting that Napoleon could do what he wanted while Arthur was constrained by Horse Guards & London)

Arthur, the beau, was very attentive to his wardrobe and was a bit of a dandy (shhh don't tell him I said that) while Napoleon was always in out of date clothes that he wore too loose because he valued comfort and wearing the same three things over fashion (though, this isn't to say Napoleon didn't care about being seen as fashionable and well put together. He did, just on the day to day it was different)

Napoleon retained some of that idealism and Romanticism of his youth even as he evolved into the far more cynical and politicking emperor while Arthur pretty much cauterized that part of himself entirely

Arthur was quite honourable in many ways whereas Napoleon played a bit fast and loose with that

Napoleon's very open and affectionate relationship with his soldiers - even the common soldier - compared to Arthur's very regimented and classist approach

yeah that's more or less what I look like if you had to draw me like a piccrew

aww thank you! I very much love writing anything to do with early modern Florence - particularly Marsilio Ficino and the various people in his life, Lorenzo of course included. There's something so fascinating with their friendship and the push-pull between the two of them that I am endlessly engrossed by.

I think much of it really is bound up in the tragedy of Marsilio wanting Lorenzo to be a different man to who he fundamentally was and Marsilio not quite understanding that what he wanted was a foundational change versus just "Lorenzo being better than his worst sensibilities". Though there were true elements of Lorenzo not always being better than his worst sensibilities that Marsilio was right and good to critique - but still, Marsilio wanted an ascetic philosopher prince and Lorenzo was never going to be that. And Lorenzo I think wanted a bit more a traditional client-patron relationship with Marsilio and Marsilio was too much "part of the family" in way that was different to Angelo Poliziano for that to ever really work. Not to mention Lorenzo was too stingy by half.

Then there was the left over remains of their tutor-student relationship that underscored certain things. Marsilio could be condescending and prickly at times, and very much a man who would Tell You What He Thinks Whether You Like It Or Not (Giovanni: Marsilio. No.). This could make him difficult from a courtier perspective. Then there was Lorenzo, as he got into his twenties, not appreciating being told to stop whoring around and "come now, it's live up to your grandfather's expectations". Which, you know, I get. That's an understandable reaction.

They also had some overlap of the less fluffy sides of their personalities that made it so they grated against each other - both sharp, prickly at times, quick with a scathing rebutle, prone to deep depressive episodes, proud, perhaps a little arrogant and self-centred about their position &c. &c. and none of that helped anything of course.

hahaha I'm not sure! I mean he would likely have opinions, being a man of strong views, but I couldn't say what they would be.